Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues for allowing this to happen. This side of the House unfortunately does not get very many opportunities to speak, sadly so. If I were to describe this budget, I would describe it as progressive, prudent and socially aware. That was something we could not do for the last ten years. The people of the country expected this progress to take place. They expected the social awareness programme to emerge and they were not disappointed.

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It will be good for the country, the people and the economy. Let us not forget there are challenges still ahead of us. The housing issue remains very serious. The Government and the Minister have put huge efforts into addressing this problem. It has not gone away. It requires a concentrated effort from here on and the expenditure provided for in the budget will obviously be of considerable assistance.

I was on the special housing committee that sat two years ago. I still believe that as long as there is a multiplicity of housing agencies throughout the country doing the same thing, tripping over each other and all involved in administration we will never solve the housing problem. I pointed out when I was on the committee that we needed to go back to putting the emphasis on the local authorities to build local authority houses. The phrase "social housing" should disappear from our vocabulary altogether. The resources are in the budget to do this. If we can do this and concentrate on this issue from here on in we will deal with the housing problem. It is pitiful to have to talk to, look at and interact with the people who are about to become homeless or have been homeless for the past number of years and in some cases for up to four or five years. We have to address this issue as a matter of extreme urgency.

I want to make references to the health service where huge efforts have been made. It is a very difficult and challenging area. The Minister has made massive efforts in dealing with it. In recent days, somebody mentioned that the health service does not seem to be able to work within budget. I wonder when was the last time the health service worked within budget. To the best of my knowledge it is at least as long ago as 2002 and the problem existed before that.

The budget is timely. It is built on the back of the efforts and sacrifices made by the people. Otherwise it would not have been possible to produce this particular budget now. It will do well for the country and the people will respond to it in like fashion, and will continue with the important job of rebuilding our society.

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